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Mark Sutton – Life Through The Lens – Home win

Camera model: Nikon D4, Exposure time: 1/640s, Aperture: F14, ISO speed: 800, Lens: 24-70mm zoom I started the first session in the paddock outside the Pirelli motorhome because Stefano Domenicali has been in there to talk tyres. I saw on one of the screens that Fernando Alonso had stopped on track so, recognising the section of track he stopped on, I ran to the photographers’ shuttle bus and went straight to the scene. My first picture was one of the car being loaded onto the truck and then I got a picture of him riding away on the back of a bike. It was probably the biggest story of first practice because Alonso lost so much running time, so it was a good photo to have and I immediately wired it onto our website

Camera model: Nikon D4, Exposure time: 1/600s, Aperture: F7.1, ISO speed: 400, Lens: 500mm telephoto This is Jean-Eric Vergne attacking the NGK Chicane during Friday practice. I went down there specifically to get this shot but oddly he was the only one really riding the kerbs. But you can see here that he has wheels off the track and the breaks traction, so although you straighten the chicane, it is not necessarily the fastest way. None of the other drivers did it on Friday and I went back on Saturday to see if they would do it in qualifying and again not many did

Camera model: Nikon D4, Exposure time: 1/800s, Aperture: F8, ISO speed: 400, Lens: 24-70mm zoom This was a funny shot. After qualifying Mark Webber peered into Lewis Hamilton’s cockpit, most likely at the request of his engineers who probably suspect Mercedes have some sort of special device in there. You can see that he is not touching the car and legally there is probably nothing stopping him doing that as long as he doesn’t touch the car. When the teams used to run F-ducts the drivers often had a look in each other’s cockpits to see how they were getting it to work, so maybe it’s something similar to that on the Mercedes. If there is something in there it is clearly working as it was Hamilton’s second pole position in a row

Camera model: Nikon D4, Exposure time: 1/1600s, Aperture: F10, ISO speed: 200, Lens: 500mm telephoto Felipe Massa spun off at turn one on lap four and quite a lot of the photographers there had actually left by then. I was following the cars coming into the corner over the brow and then Massa just lost it without even touching the kerb. He then stalled it when the car stuck in fifth gear as he tried to rejoin and that was the end of his race. It was a real rookie error, like your typical learner driver tank slapper. He lost it one way and tried to get it back the other way but overcompensated. I’ve done it a few times when I’ve been on skid pans!

Camera model: Nikon D4, Exposure time: 1/640s, Aperture: F7.1, ISO speed: 400, Lens: 500mm telephoto Sebastian Vettel’s celebration reminded so much of Michael Schumacher, and the way he’s going it might not be long until he equals the seven-time world champion’s records. He’s certainly in the right car at the right time right now, just like Schumacher was. The only difference is that Michael used to tuck his knees up to make his jump look a little higher and I don’t think Vettel has learned that trick yet! I think he’d be better doing it with one finger in the air to mirror his parc ferme celebration

Camera model: Nikon D4, Exposure time: 1/1600s, Aperture: F9, ISO speed: 200, Lens: 500mm telephoto Here are the two sides to the relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. Off track they seem to get on very well and I took this photo while they were heading off on the drivers’ parade. On track they had a battle as well but it’s clear that they have a lot of respect for each other. Lewis is going through a difficult time at the moment after breaking up with his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger. It’s quite interesting to see him chatting with various people and he is clearly looking for some friends at the moment to get him through. It’s nice to see that he was able to share a joke with Fernando because you would not have expected that after their time at McLaren together in 2007